1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees 14

Demetrius Taken Captive

1 In the 172nd year King Demetrius gathered his forces and marched into Media to raise help for himself, so that he could fight Trypho. 2 When Arsaces, the king of Persia and Media, heard that Demetrius had entered his territory, he sent one of his commanders to take him alive. 3 The commander went and struck down the army of Demetrius, seized him, and brought him to Arsaces, who put him under guard.

The Land at Rest

4 The land of Judah was quiet all the days of Simon.

He sought the good of his nation,

and his authority and his glory pleased them all his days.

5 To crown all his glory, he took Joppa for a harbor

and opened a way to the islands of the sea.

6 He enlarged the borders of his nation

and took firm hold of the land.

7 He gathered a great company of captives;

he made himself master of Gazara and Beth-zur and the citadel,

and he removed the uncleanness from it,

and there was no one to resist him.

8 They farmed their land in peace;

the earth gave its harvests,

and the trees of the fields their fruit.

9 Old men sat in the streets,

all of them talking together of good things,

and the young men put on glory and the garments of war.

10 He supplied the cities with food

and fitted them out for defense,

until his glorious name was known to the end of the earth.

11 He made peace in the land,

and Israel rejoiced with great joy.

12 Each man sat under his own vine and his own fig tree,

and there was no one to make them afraid.

13 No enemy was left in the land to fight them;

the kings themselves were crushed in those days.

14 He strengthened all the lowly among his people;

he searched out the law,

and removed every lawless and wicked man.

15 He brought honor to the holy place

and multiplied the vessels of the holy place.

Friendship with Rome and Sparta

16 When it was heard in Rome, and as far away as Sparta, that Jonathan had died, they grieved deeply. 17 But as soon as they heard that his brother Simon had become chief priest in his place, and that he ruled the land and the cities in it, 18 they wrote to him on bronze tablets, to renew with him the friendship and alliance they had established with his brothers Judas and Jonathan. 19 And the letters were read before the assembly in Jerusalem.

20 This is a copy of the letter the Spartans sent: “The rulers of the Spartans, with the city, to Simon the great priest, and to the elders and the priests and the rest of the people of the Jews, our brothers: greetings. 21 The envoys sent to our people have told us of your glory and honor, and we rejoiced at their coming. 22 We have entered what they said in the public records of the people, as follows: Numenius son of Antiochus and Antipater son of Jason, envoys of the Jews, came to us to renew their friendship with us. 23 And it pleased the people to receive the men with honor, and to place a copy of their words in the books set apart for public record, so that the people of Sparta would have a record of them.” And they wrote a copy of all this to Simon the chief priest.

24 After this Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a great gold shield weighing about 1,250 pounds, to confirm the alliance with them.

The Decree on the Bronze Tablets

25 When the people heard of these things, they said, “How shall we thank Simon and his sons? 26 For he and his brothers and his father’s house have stood firm; they have fought off Israel’s enemies and secured its freedom.” So they engraved a record on bronze tablets and set it on pillars on Mount Zion.

27 This is a copy of what they wrote: “On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the 172nd year — that is, the third year of Simon the great chief priest — in Asaramel, 28 in the great gathering of the priests and the people and the leaders of the nation and the elders of the land, this was made known to us: 29 Since wars have often broken out in the land, Simon son of Mattathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib, and his brothers put themselves in danger and stood against the enemies of their nation, so that their holy place and the law might stand; and they honored their nation with great glory. 30 Jonathan rallied their nation, became their chief priest, and was gathered to his people. 31 Then their enemies resolved to invade their land and to lay hands on their holy place.

32 At that time Simon rose up and fought for his nation. He spent much of his own money to arm the fighting men of his nation and to pay their wages. 33 He fortified the cities of Judea, and Beth-zur on the borders of Judea, where the weapons of the enemy had once been stored, and he stationed there a garrison of Jewish men. 34 He fortified Joppa by the sea, and Gazara on the borders of Azotus, where the enemy had lived before; he settled Jews there, and stocked those towns with everything needed to set them right again.

35 The people saw Simon’s faithfulness and the glory he had resolved to bring his nation, and they made him their leader and chief priest — because he had done all these things, and because of the righteousness and the faithfulness he kept toward his nation, and because he sought in every way to lift his people up. 36 In his days things prospered in his hands: the nations were cleared out of their land, along with the men in the city of David in Jerusalem, who had made themselves a citadel, from which they would go out to defile everything around the holy place and do great harm to its purity. 37 He settled Jewish men in it and fortified it for the safety of the land and the city, and he raised the walls of Jerusalem higher.

38 In view of all this, King Demetrius confirmed him in the chief priesthood, 39 made him one of his friends, and honored him with great glory. 40 For he had heard that the Romans were calling the Jews friends and allies and brothers, and that they had received Simon’s envoys with honor; 41 and that the Jews and the priests were well pleased for Simon to be their leader and chief priest forever, until a faithful prophet should arise, 42 and to be commander over them, and to take charge of the holy place — appointing men on his own authority over its services, and over the land, the weapons, and the strongholds — 43 and to take charge of the holy place; and that he should be obeyed by all, that every contract in the land should be written in his name, and that he should be clothed in purple and wear gold.

44 None of the people or the priests shall be permitted to set aside any of these things, or to contradict what he says, or to call any gathering in the land without him, or to be clothed in purple or wear a gold buckle. 45 Whoever acts against this, or sets aside any part of it, shall be liable to punishment.”

46 All the people agreed to grant Simon the right to act according to these words. 47 And Simon accepted. He consented to be chief priest and commander and ruler of the nation over the Jews and the priests, and to protect them all. 48 They ordered that this writing be set on bronze tablets, and that these be put up inside the precinct of the holy place, in a spot where all could see them, 49 and that copies be laid up in the treasury, where Simon and his sons would have them.